Blog by Kevin Jagger

Mind Requires Warmup

This morning, for the first time in the past eight weeks, I was not feeling top shape heading into a workout.

Perhaps it was the heavy volume week last week or the sprints yesterday with CJ but I woke up sluggish and was not 100% “there” when I arrived at VC for this morning’s loaded power session.

My solution: super ultra extended warmup.

Brock and I were outside on the field / track for over an hour doing warmup drills, cals, laps, turn cables and even snuck in a couple practice skate starts to get the body and mind jacked up. That seemed to do the trick as I was ready to go once we hit the gym. This acted as a good lesson for future, just keep grinding until you wake yourself up. By the end I was literally running out of drills to do - credit to Brock for his patience.

The goal of this portion of the program is to build strength in the speed skating basic position (i.e. “sitting on the chair”).

In the end, got a good lift in and feel strong heading into this afternoon’s bike ride. Program calls for a 70+ min bike ride with six 1 minute max efforts (with 1 minute rest) halfway through the program. Gets the anaerobic energy system firing.

Note: In the background of the dumbbell jump squats video you can see incoming Vancouver College senior Christian Covington. I spoke with Christian, son of CFL legend Grover Covington, and he said he has received a full athletic scholarship to Eastern Washington University and is receiving plenty of interest from Pac 10 schools. Christian continues a long line VC players who make the leap to the NCAA from VC thanks in large part to VC head coach Todd Bernett. Good luck Christian!

Here is a quick clip from yesterday's sprints session with CJ Stephenson. Thanks for coming out CJ - much appreciated!!

For those of you scoring at home, I took the first race, 2nd was a dead heat and 3 and 4 went to CJ. Until next week...